We are super excited to see our beautiful bride and very handsome groom, Ashley and Dusty, in Southern Wedding Magazine and on their blog!!  The magazine’s blog even dedicated the week to their stunning pictures and so “Classic Wedding Week” begins!   The bride wore Romona Kaveza gown with low back, bridal covered buttons and the most fun, subtle polka dot detail for an added touch!  When describing their wedding they stated it was “beautiful, vintage and playful” and judging by the pictures I could not agree more.  Make sure you check out the full blog post for the cutest story of how they met and the praise on finding her gown here at Solutions.  And…of course…CONGRATS to Ashley and Dusty!!

http://www.swsmag.net/

We have exciting news! Solutions Bridal Orlando has just picked up a new line of bridesmaid dresses. American fashion designer Cynthia Rowley has teamed up with The Dessy Group to bring you this new stylish line.

Rowley was seven when she constructed her first dress. Then as a senior at the Art Institute of Chicago, she sold her first collection of eight pieces to a number of New York’s most prominent stores.

Since then, the Cynthia Rowley Collection has grown beyond women’s wear to include beauty, baby, bicycles, active-wear, home sewing patterns, tools, handbags, shoes, legwear and shapewear.

Now, she’s taking on the bridal industry! Cynthia Rowley Bridesmaids brings chic sensibility to bridesmaids dresses with designer styling inspired by her runway collection. Also, you may have caught Cynthia on last night’s “Project Runway” as a guest host for a bridesmaid challenge. Her line is definitely a great fit for the fashion forward, “it” bride.

Call now to make an appointment and see our samples in person.

I recently had the privilege to interview the owner of Solutions Bridal, Newell Fox. Newell is a UF graduate that saw a nitch in the bridal market and decided to jump heads first in. He opened the first Solutions Bridal store in Gainesville ,FL in July 2002 and since then has opened a second store in Orlando.

Here are the questions I asked Newell:

How did you get in the bridal business?

I just found a nitch in the customer service market and opened up the first store in July of 2002.

What is your favorite part of the wedding industry?

Working with the staff and seeing them develop and grow. I also like making all our brides dreams and wishes come true.

What is a piece of advice you have for the newly engaged?

There are no problems just decisions when it comes to your wedding.

What makes the Solutions Bridal experience so unique?

Our staff is so educated.  We hand select gowns from designers and make them available to our brides. We give our brides the best experience from the time they enter the salon to the time they take their dream dress home.

Who is your favorite designer and why?

Rivini, I believe we have similiar philosophies when it comes to customer service so we work really well together.

What was your favorite part of your wedding day?

My favorite part was just having all my friends and family there and being able to enjoy that with my wife.

Spending time with the bride in the hours leading up to the ceremony is my absolute favorite part of the wedding day! Some people love the party aspect of the reception, but I love that quiet, intimate time and all of the excitement and anticipation of the morning of the big day. The “this is it” feeling that brides have after months and months of planning and dreaming. The ritual of getting pampered and primped and looking like a princess. The shoes, the bling… and the dress! I love it all!

My favorite images of the day often come from the getting ready part, but I think brides sometimes overlook the importance of the setting for their getting ready photos. They think about the location for the ceremony, the perfect setting for the reception, and also where the group and B&G photos will be taken, but where the bride gets ready is also very important. First, it sets the tone for the bride. Getting ready is a ceremony in itself. It’s a special time spent with her closest girlfriends, mother, and other important women in her life, so it’s essential to make sure you have enough room for them all to be there:

The gorgeous image above is a shot from one of our weddings last weekend. Doesn’t it intrigue you and make you want to see the rest of the wedding photos? Every great story has to grab the audience from the beginning, and that goes for your wedding story as well!

In addition to lots of space (the more, the better), it’s important to make sure that space is tidy. If the girls all had a slumber party in the hotel suite and there are piles of clothes on the floor, they will be in the pictures! Other common distractions include open closets/doors, suitcases, and a messy bed. I’ll usually tidy up the room if it needs it, but I’d rather get straight to creating!

Usually I will position the bride in the most open space in the room and try to use a plain background behind her. However, in this image below the church had a room for the bride and it had the most charming wallpaper. I fell in love with it and positioned the bride in front of it. The result was a series of shots that were my favorite shots of the day. These were captured just moments before she walked down the aisle:

It’s also very important to have good light. I don’t mean a lamp or overhead lights, either. I bet I just made a bunch of photographers cringe at the thought of icky yellow light! That’s because it’s not flattering or pretty. The best light is natural light, so a room with large windows is perfect!

Before we head to the ceremony, I love getting a beautiful portrait of the bride. She just saw herself in the mirror after hours of getting hair and makeup done and putting on the dress and jewelry, and she KNOWS she looks amazing! She’s confident and glowing, and it’s the last photos I’ll take before she marries the love of her life.

Ahhhhhh! I love it! I just love seeing these lovely ladies that I’ve been getting to know for the past year see their dream day come to life. It’s such an incredible thing to observe, and often by the time the ceremony arrives I’m just ready to cry. And often times I DO cry! Hey, if I wasn’t a sappy romantic I would probably be doing something else! Instead, I get to document the most important day in a couple’s life!

Bride to be? Gwendolynn Tundermann photgraphy is located in Jacksonville, FL. Contact Gwendolyn at info@gwendolyntundermann.com or visit her website!

Hey ladies, have we got a bridal registry for you! Solutions Bridal recently stumbled upon a new website called NewlyWish. The New York based site allows your wedding guests to order gifts from various merchants at the same time. That way there’s no limit to the brand or type of product you have “wished” for! NewlyWish offers everything from eco-friendly hand towels to romantic hot air balloon rides in Africa!

The website allows small merchants to participate in a registry who wouldn’t typically have their own. Brides-to-be then save their favorite gifts from all different stores to a single bridal registry.

Not only is NewlyWish convenient for the bride, but it is also designed to make it easy on the friends and family who want to buy you a gift but simply don’t have the time to go out to your favorite store. When your guests log in to see your list they can place their order from multiple merchants with one easy purchase.

NewlyWish is also great for brides looking to buy gifts for the bridal party. You can buy massages, prime fillet mignon, tickets to a baseball game, flower girl hair appointments, dance classes and so much more! Even if you do not belong to the registry you can purchase items on the website.

NewlyWish is truly the one stop shop of gift giving; so whether you’re a bride looking to buy gifts for your bridal party or to create a wish list of your own NewlyWish might just be your new favorite website! It’s ours!

Polka dots are a great way to incorporate interesting details to your wedding. For the ceremony you could incorporate black and white polka dot ribbon in your bridesmaid bouquets or dresses. There are lots of ways to integrate patterns…check out some of these!

Check out these cute cameras that can be placed on the guest tables at the reception! You can find personalized disposable cameras at party stores or online.

For an elegant look you may consider incorporating black and white feathers. Feathers look great when paired with flowers or hair pieces.     

By keeping your color palette simple, you can focus on the details of your wedding as main focal points. For example if your wedding party is wearing all black and white have your girls wear fun heels and your men wear interesting boutonnières.

So more often than not, we are seeing brides who want to use a pop of color in their wedding somewhere but they aren’t sure where to use it. We suggest you get some really fun, bold shoes! Why not right? You can show them off if you want, or keep them as your own little secret. You could wear some blue heels to bring in your “something blue” or you could wear the same color as your bridesmaid dresses to tie it all together. If neither of these ideas sound appealing, wear whatever color makes you happy, because it’s your big day!

For your something blue, you can wear some sparkly bright blue heels like these! They are sure to make a big statement!

This is a prime example of taking the color and using it in every aspect of the wedding. In particular, the bridesmaid dresses and the bridal shoes match perfectly!

Don’t limit yourself and feel free to be creative with your shoe choice! Like I said before, it’s your day, so do it up exactly how you want!

 Here at Solutions Bridal we know how exciting it is to plan your wedding. Little girls dream about their wedding day, envisioning everything from the big white dress to the little bride and groom on the cake. But do they dream about the size of their reception tables? Or how much that open bar tab is going to be? I don’t think so, but if these things are not planned accordingly you may find yourself with some unhappy guests, or even worse…dipping into the honeymoon fund!

Don’t panic! A new app called the Super Planner created by Howard Givner was released last week. It can calculate everything from the suggested size of your dance floor to the number of waiters you should hire. The app is a series of calculators that allow you to input the number of guests at your wedding, your local tax, gratuity, your expected number of guests, the desired number of chairs per table, the expected number of drinks consumed per person and so much more.

From this information, the Super Planner outputs the appropriate sizes and prices you need to plan your wedding. It even advises you on how to set your perfect table!

This app is a great way to avoid overages and hidden fees, and it’ll only cost you $9.99!

So if you need help planning the logistics of your wedding… there’s an app for that!